Don't be Fooled
by strawssa
Summary: Professor Dawn had been positive that Lucas and Barry could handle her request. After all, Lucas had defeated Palkia twice and Barry was a Tower Tycoon, how hard could it be for them? However, in retrospect, she had forgotten the extent of what gods were capable of—and so had they. AU.


For the first time in five years, Lucas felt true fear.

The cause of his growing horror stood several feet ahead of them, its beastly form reaching the clouds that hung low in the sky. Its body glowed a light pink, illuminating the dark night as if it was a star itself. Lucas could hear its heavy breathing from his location, and the dark pink markings on its body, along with the round, clear pearl-like orbs on each of its shoulders, seemed to pulse with an energy neither of them could fathom.

To his left, Barry was kneeling on the ground, his brown messenger bag strewn to the side. He was muttering to himself, deathly still and brown eyes—almost orange in color—wide, taking in the terrifying sight before him.

"Palkia," he choked out, his deep voice strangled. Lucas could not find it within himself to respond. His mind was still reeling from the horrifying realization that all of his pokémon were fainted and so were Barry's.

They both had desperately used all of their revives while battling the creature, leaving them nothing to heal their fallen comrades with. All they had succeeded in doing while battling it was angering it, and now they have to pay the price of losing.

Lucas doubted that anything on his or Barry's person would appease the being. He felt his breathing go ragged and his body started to shake.

In his hysteria, Lucas was baffled. He had defeated the very same pokémon—could he even label the beast as a mere pokémon?—twice before. He was twelve years old and his pokémon were weaker, then. He was not even the Champion, yet, when he had defeated it the first time.

Lucas did not understand what went wrong.

Palkia raised its head, stretching its neck towards the heavens. The air around them—already charged from the pressure the gigantic being gave off—seemed to freeze. Lucas felt bile bubble up his throat at the sudden dawning of what it was about to do. Its right arm began to glow neon pink in color. Lucas sprung into action.

He grabbed Barry's right bicep, hauling him up. The young man was still in a trance, tripping over his own long legs as he was forced to stand.

"We gotta go," Lucas was yelling; his dark gray eyes were wild, almost glowing in the unnatural light Palkia was giving off. For the first time in their lives, Lucas was the quicker one. "Barry," he stressed, forcing them back, "we have to go."

Barry barely managed a nod, platinum blond hair falling in messy wisps around his face, when Palkia launched its attack.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Lucas knew the move was called Spacial Rend; Cynthia had probably informed him of the fact long ago, before she had left Sinnoh for her travels.

One moment, they were blinded by the light the move gave off. The next, their bodies were thrown backwards as the space around them shifted. It sucked them into a spinning pink portal. Both them and the portal disappeared from Palkia's sight immediately after. All that was left, laying untouched next to a broken pillar, was Barry's brown messenger bag.

It was deathly silent for several minutes. The beast took its time to recover, eyes closed. It seemed to be waiting for something.

Eyes opening, Palkia then let out a roar and created a portal for itself, vanishing into it and abandoning the world. Spear Pillar became still once again.

* * *

In the beachside town of Sandgem, far from Mt. Coronet, a young woman with long dark black hair sat hunched over a report that she had been working on for the past two hours. She was distracted from her work when one of Professor Rowan's assistants—the name-tag clipped above his right breast pocket revealed him to be "Sullivan"—dashed over to her desk.

"Professor Dawn, we have wonderful news!" he exclaimed.

Dawn gave him a small smile. The bags under her eyes made her gray eyes look even darker. "Yes?" she asked. She spun her chair to face the older man directly.

"The energy levels from Mt. Coronet have dropped completely! It seems that your friends have successfully solved the problem," Sullivan said. His glasses glinted underneath the lab's fluorescent lights. Dawn squinted her eyes and rubbed them with the palms of her pale hands, leaning back in her chair.

"That's good to hear," she sighed. "I knew that they would take care of it. After all, they aren't Sinnoh's Champion and Tower Tycoon for nothing, right?"

The two of them laughed. With a short bow, the assistant hurried off, leaving Dawn to finish her lab report.

* * *

A/N

As the story progresses, so will the chapters' length. This chapter is just the bun of the hamburger, and the meat will be here, soon.


End file.
